“We paid $3billion for these stations. We’ll decide what the news is. The news is what we tell you it is.” That’s what Jane Akre reports David Boylan, then station manager of Fox TV’s channel 13 in Tampa, Florida told her during their ongoing struggle over which story on rBGH would air- the report she and her investigative partner Steve Wilson wrote, or the one that Fox wanted them to present on air…. a fabrication of the imagination of Fox’s lawyers with probably plenty of input from Monsanto (and the dairy and grocery industries which were also interested in hiding the information from the public).
After the report failed to air the first two times it was scheduled, the two reporters agreed to re-work the series, changing the wording so that they could live with the story as well as Fox. After a series of 83 re-writes (!!!) (Do you think they were being played?) demanded by Fox and after six scheduled and cancelled airdates, the story still wasn’t broadcast. Finally David Boylan, the station manager, told the pair that the station would find another reporter to rewrite the story according to Fox’s demands if they wouldn’t toe the line. When Akre and Wilson threatened to file a formal complaint with the FCC, the station manager offered them two hundred thousand dollars to go away, keep quiet about the story, and not disclose how Fox had handled the whole affair. (They have it in writing.) They turned down the offer. They were ultimately fired in December, 1997. Eventually they instituted a suit against Fox and won a “landmark whistleblower suit” wherein they were awarded $425,000 in damages by a jury. Fox unsuccessfully appealed the case three times. Finally they hit pay dirt after three appeals failed and six judges turned down hearing it. They ultimately found a judge who would hear the appeal. On February 14, 2003, the jury decision was overturned on a “technicality.” The “technicality”? The Florida whistleblower law protected employees whose employer required them to break a law. This was the basis for Akre and Wilson winning the original suit. The “technicality” is this: Fox argued and WON that there is no FCC law that requires a tv station to broadcast the truth. Telling the truth on the air is only a policy and because WTVT did not ask the reporters to break a law by broadcasting lies, there was no basis for the suit! Jury award vacated! Case closed! Fox did not violate any law, the appellate judge said because a television station is not bound by law to tell the truth. “We paid $3 billion for these stations. We’ll decide what the news is. The news is what we tell you it is.” Guess Boylan was right! It should be noted that news editors do have the legitimate right to not air or publish a story, but not to demand it be falsified.
Tomorrow’s post will talk about how the FDA protects biotech industries, not you.
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